The Fast and the Dead

All of Habba Galli, Shivajinagar, is disturbed when eccentric Dondi Pais empties her double-barrelled shotgun to scatter a pack of noisy mongrels on Karwa Chauth night. But their distress turns to shock the next morning when it is discovered that one stray bullet has ploughed into the skull of a sour, spiteful jeweller, leaving him quite definitely dead.The more devout residents immediately recall how, the previous afternoon, the jeweller''s wife of thirty years had broken her fast well before the appearance of the sacred Karwa Chauth moon. ''Aiyyo,'' they whisper, ''she''s gone and angered the Goddess!''